150 Followers Giveaway: The Scorpio Races!

Quick post due to huge storm about to attack, wherein I will probably lose internet, but! I've reached 150 followers! THANK YOU GUYS!!! You're all so awesome! And in light of this momentous (for me, shush, I'm easily excited) occasion, I think I should GIVE STUFF AWAY. Right?!

I've been saving a good one for you. I've got a SIGNED copy of Maggie Stiefvater (author of Linger and Shiver)'s new book THE SCORPIO RACES.

My review from Goodreads:

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This one started out a little slow for me, but by the end, I had really fallen in love with it. If you're a fan of fast hooks and speed-reads, this one might not be for you. But if you enjoy a slow-building story, and complex characters, you'll love this book.

I was really impressed by how realistic Maggie Stiefvater made Thisby, the island where these mythical races take place. It felt gritty and wild and so real that, not going to lie, at one point I googled it to check if it existed. I also love the way she took tiny pieces of an obscure mythology (I mean, sea horses who eat people? I love me some mythos, but even I'd never heard that one before) and wove them into such a complex tale that it almost takes on a mythology of its own. The people of Thisby have a thousand tiny rituals that revolve around the horses and the Scorpio races, from the clothes they wear to the strange celebrations they hold, to the way they make wishes.

I also enjoyed that this book felt so timeless. Coming out of a string of YA novels that are very firmly set in a certain time period, I liked that you couldn't quite place when this one happens. I figured it was in the UK somewhere early on, just going by the Brit-speak in it. But you're never really sure if "the mainland" they constantly refer to is England, Scotland, Ireland maybe? The horse names were clearly Gaelic, but that doesn't really narrow it down. And I like that you never find out. I'd also been picturing it happening in a modern-day, kind of backwater technology-less town, until one of the reporters makes a comment like "were you inspired by the women's suffregettes?" to the main character, and then I thought maybe it was supposed to be earlier in the 20th century... But who knows!

For me, the book picked up around the middle, when the two main characters finally start to interact and train for the races. Before that, although the prose was gorgeous and the characters all interesting, the plot sort of slacked for me. I think my biggest problem with the book was that I could not understand why Puck/Kate, the main female character, was entering these deadly races. So I was having a hard time connecting to her in the beginning. That's sort of remedied later on, though, because she acknowledges that she doesn't know why she's doing it either, so maybe it's not really a problem. Could just be me!

At any rate, this one is definitely worth a read! And I've only read half of Shiver, so don't take me too seriously on this, but I get the feeling it's very different from that series.



View all my reviews

To enter, all you need to do is comment below! That's it! But if you follow the blog and/or tweet about the contest (I'm @egoodlett over there), I would be eternally grateful. And give you bonus points and stuff. :)

Now, I am off to stock up on emergency supplies, since last time we had a power outage, my roomie and I were left with 2 packets of crackers, approximately 300 candles but no matches or lighters, and a flashlight with a dead battery. WE ARE SO PREPARED. Bring it on, Hurricane Irene.

(ETA: contest will close September 2nd!)